Genesis 25:1-4

"And Abraham took another wife, and her name was Keturah. And she bare him Zimran, and Jockshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shua. And Jokshan begat Sheba, and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were Asshurin, and Letushim, and Leummim. And the sons of Midian: Ephah, and Epher, and Hanoch, and Abida, and Eldaah. All these were the children of Keturah."

"And Abraham took another wife ..." We believe that Keturah was one of the concubines of Abraham, whom he made a secondary wife (as later, in the case of Hagar), possibly while still living in Haran. (See the Excursus on Keturah at the end of this chapter.) Let it be said here that the Bible "seems to say" that this taking of Keturah was an event that took place AFTER the death of Sarah, but it should always be remembered that it is a notable feature of the Bible that "it seems to say" many things which it does not say.

We give two examples:

1. The Bible SEEMS TO SAY that John the Baptist denied that he was "that prophet which was to come," as foretold by Malachi, but this is not the case at all. What he denied was that he was "Elijah the Tishbite," a far different thing.
   
2. The Bible also SEEMS TO SAY that Christ promised to "come in the glory of the Father with the holy angels" within the lifetime of some of them who heard him (Mark 8:38; 9:1), but the passage says no such thing. The mistaken impression that it does so is solely due to Mark's characteristic style of roughly grouping "independent sayings" of Jesus.[2] This is given here as background material for the Excursus on Keturah. We shall see that the most convincing reasons lie behind the conclusion that the "marriage" to Keturah did not occur AFTER Sarah's death.
   

Richardson's comment on the names of Keturah's posterity states that, "They were related to Israel, but a step further removed than the Ishmaelites. The tribes are those to the east or southeast of Palestine."[3] He went on to add that: "Midian is the best known in the list and the most important, because he supplies a link from the Abrahamic family to Moses' Midianite contacts in the desert before the Exodus."[4]

The arrangements of these successive lists of names pertaining to Keturah, Ishmael, and to Isaac in that order, similar to the sequence followed in 1 Chronicles 1:32, where the sons of Keturah are listed BEFORE the listing of Isaac's sons, falls little short of a declaration that the sons of Keturah PRECEDED the birth of Isaac. Note also that in that place Keturah is called Abraham's "concubine," not his wife.